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1. Suggestions for Prayer, Study, and Action

SUGGESTION FOR PRAYER

World Day of Prayer 2011: Chile

How Many Loaves Have You?

On Friday March 4, 2011 the women of Chile invite us to join with them in an opening procession, carrying a "panera", the name that Chileans give to their everyday bread basket. Bread is central to their daily life and sharing bread is a universal sign of hospitality.

Enduring a devastating earthquake in February, 2010, and two other earthquakes since January, 2011, the women of Chile further encourage us to enter a process that draws us into the bible, into the context of Chile and into the real situations of our lives and communities. How many loaves have you? What are your gifts? What can you share? These are questions we are asked to ponder as we reflect on the meaning of the theme, How Many Loaves Have You?

"There are approximately seven billion people on the earth today. As population continues to grow it is becoming clear that the planet is not as big as we once thought it to be; it is also becoming obvious that humans are wreaking havoc upon the environment. The big question we have been trying to solve for the past 100 years is, "how do we maximize production and produce more and more stuff?" The big question we now face is, "what do we do with all the junk and pollution we have created?". To make matters worse, we now seem more determined than ever to work harder and produce more stuff, which creates a bizarre paradox, we are proudly breaking our backs to decrease the carrying capacity of the planet.

"So what is the solution? A great beginning would be to reduce the industrial workweek. We would consume less, produce less, work less, pollute less and live more. Providing that the remaining work be distributed among more people, an industrial slow-down could have the additional benefit of reducing unemployment. This is a simple concept which has not garnered much attention. This book tackles the ideological constraints to environmental sustainability and proves how a reduced workweek can help solve many of our social and environmental problems."

German climate finance put to the test
An assessment of German financial support for
climate-related activities in developing countries
from a development policy perspective
Germanwatch and Bread for the WorldNovember 2010

The lines show all the interactions between 15 challenges facing humanity. It provides a better visualization of the complexity of the process.

Assuming that the 15 challenges can be analyzed in groups of 5, the number of group combinations to be analyzed is 15!/10!5!, or 3003. If the order in which they are considered matters, then the number of challenge permutations to be analyzed is 15!, or 1307674368000.

Computers can crunch numbers, but resolving these 15 challenges together requires more than number crunching.

This is the best visualization. It shows that, in the ultimate analysis, the transition from consumerism to sustainability must happen in human minds and hearts before it can happen at any level - local, national, or global.

This model suggests the additional (and critical) insight that the transition is contingent on gender equality and cross-gender solidarity. Sustainable development will require the collaboration of all men and women of good will.

The transition from homo economicus to homo ecologicus requires gender equality, because the ecological mindset cannot take root and grow as long as humans are engaged in any form of domination; and patriarchy is the most pervasive structure of domination.